Prog-Nose

Release: 2010 Style: Ambient Label: Djam Karet/HC Production Website: www.DjamKaret.com; www.DjamKaret.nl Myspace: www.myspace.com/djamkaret Playing Time: 64:40 Cat. N°: 00000 Review by: Lia Translated by: Misha Rating: 7,5/10

Smooth electric fields from green and blue to deep red, a melancholic ambient with lonely bushes of rhythmic irregularities. It seemed to me, that on these musical glades, no adventurer will dare, 30 years after Brian Eno. Abandon hope all ye who enter these fields. But not Ukab Maerd, a backwards dream of a Baku spirit. From the 7 notes some will easily solder something very useful for jumping in a disco, but others are still able to create wonderfully pleasant things. So, there is a hope for neophytes, even if coming to already discovered by others heights.

If you will prefer a literary comparison, than this album is a musical Virginia Woolf. Through the soporific monotonous sentences shine blood vessels, complex structures of bodily and secret existence of lonely and unsatisfied with each other people. Here is a phrase from her “To the Lighthouse”, which is a good characteristic for this album:
“…both of them looked at the dunes far away, and instead of merriment felt come over them some sadness - because the thing was completed partly, and partly because distant views seem to outlast by a million years (Lily thought) the gazer and to be communing already with a sky which beholds an earth entirely at rest.”

This is the second of Djam Karet’s side projects, released in 2010. This one something quite opposite to the song-oriented White Arrow Project. It is a solid electronic ambient affair. The musicians themselves describe the album’s content as mind music, that draws its inspiration from dream language and Surrealist art. It could be as well a perfect soundtrack for any science fiction movie, or else, an under water documentary.

The concept is conceived by Djam Karet’s founding members Gayle Ellet and Chuck Oken, Jr., with legendary French prog-musician Richard Pinhas busying himself with his favourite guitar loops. The name Ukab Maerd is “Baku Dream”, spelled backwards. It is a reference to Djam Karet’s 2003 album “A Night for Baku”. “Baku” here has nothing to do with the capital city of Azerbajdjan. This Baku is the name for Japanese supernatural beings that devour dreams and nightmares. However, in this case, Baku can be a perfect dream maker. The album contains four long tracks, dreamy, smooth and saturated with various electronic sounds and loops.

Tracklist: 1. The Cave (23:35) 2. White Light, No Heat (11:28) 3. God's Elastic Acre (18:16) 4. Sati & the Trainman (11:14)

Musicians: Gayle Ellett – analog and digital keyboards, electric guitar, effects Chuck Oken, Jr. – analog, digital and modular keyboards, electronic percussion, effects, loop processing and reconstruction Guest musician: Richard Pinhas – guitar loops (1-3)